Combining international political theory and EU studies, Richard Bellamy provides an original account of the democratic legitimacy of international organisations. He proposes a new interpretation of the EU's democratic failings and how they might be addressed. Drawing on the republican theory of freedom as non-domination, Bellamy proposes a way to combine national popular sovereignty with the pursuit of fair and equitable relations of non-domination among states and their citizens. Applying this approach to the EU, Bellamy shows that its democratic failings lie not with the democratic deficit at the EU level but with a democratic disconnect at the member state level. Rather than shifting democratic authority to the European Parliament, this book argues that the EU needs to reconnect with the different 'demoi' of the member states by empowering national parliaments in the EU policy-making process.

‘This is the best presentation and defence of the EU as an association of sovereign republican states by Europe's leading republican theorist.'

James Tully - Professor Emeritus, University of Victoria

‘A superb rethinking of the European Union, which both reveals the deep and continuing appeal of the project, scattering the Brexit fog, and motivates an arresting but sensible set of proposals for institutional reform.'

Philip Pettit - Princeton University and the Australian National University

‘Like the best work in EU studies, Richard Bellamy recognizes that insights only come from being both attentive to the Union’s institutional detail and sensitive to its uniqueness. However, he alone shows that us that we can only make the most of this by exploring Europe’s rich heritage in political thought. This book is the most ambitious example yet of his considerable contribution to the field.’

Damian Chalmers - National University of Singapore

'In this impressive tome, Richard Bellamy brilliantly demonstrates how the Republican imperatives of self-government and non-domination can be reconciled with the requirements of an interdependent age - in the EU and beyond. This is not an easy feat. Bellamy’s elegant edifice - a free association of states - relies on sound theoretical pillars, namely ‘republican intergovernmentalism’ and ‘cosmopolitan statism'. But the ultimate conclusion conforms to a profound intuition. It is possible for sovereign political communities to agree and uphold cosmopolitan norms to regulate their interactions as long as individual demoi give their on-going consent to such designs. In grounding this intuition, Bellamy provides a critical contribution to political theory in general and the demoicratic constellation in particular.'

Kalypso Nicolaïdis - University of Oxford

'Bellamy’s defence of the European Union’s legitimacy as depending on democratic reconnection with its Member States will provoke and may displease both euro-sceptics and euro-enthusiasts. Making both groups think again is important right now, as the EU faces some of its biggest ever challenges.'

Jo Shaw - University of Edinburgh

'In this beautifully argued book, Richard Bellamy sets out why 'in a globalising world democratic states have compelling … reasons to create institutions that resemble the EU in key respects'. For political theorists, this is essential reading on legitimacy, democracy and justice within and beyond the state. For scholars of the EU, this is essential reading on the democratic deficit, on parliaments and the EU, on EU citizenship, on differentiated integration and on the reform of the Eurozone. For everyone, this is a book with important implications for Brexit.'

Christopher Lord - Universitetet i Oslo

'Richard Bellamy offers a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the potential justifications and normative limits of European government beyond the democratic nation state. Rejecting cosmopolitan legitimacy concepts that ignore the rootedness of rights-based norms in political processes of an established polity, and defending the legitimacy of the heterogeneous achievements of democratic self-government in existing member states, the book is compelling in its critique of present excesses of European legal and monetary integration and of normatively unsustainable proposals for further centralization. Its own vision of a republican Europe of sovereign states that respect their cosmopolitan obligations appears normatively most attractive - but also quite demanding under present conditions of rising intergovernmental tensions.'

Fritz Scharpf - Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung, Germany

'Richard Bellamy is a political theorist who truly understands the constitutional strand in Europe’s ontology. This gives added purchase to his challenging attempt to ‘re-understand’ and rethink how to frame the ever-illusive European reality.'

J. H. H. Weiler - New York University